A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated world or environment; other terms for VU's include metaverses, “3-D Internet” and Virtual World, and VU will be understood to represent any of these environments. Users inhabit and traverse a VU, and interact with other VU users through the use of an avatar, a graphical representation of the user often taking the form of a cartoon-like human though any two or three dimensional graphic image or rendering may be utilized. In order to participate within or inhabit a VU, a user creates an agent which functions as the user's account, and upon which the user builds an avatar tied to an inventory of assets the user owns in the VU and associated with the agent.
Large robust VU's and massively multiplayer online games, such as for example Second Life® (SECOND LIFE is a trademark of Linden Research, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries), Entropia Universe™ (ENTROPIA UNIVERSE is a registered trademark of MindArk PE AB in the United States, other countries, or both), The Sims Online™ (THE SIMS ONLINE is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc in the United States, other countries, or both), and There™ (THERE is a trademark of Makena Technologies, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both) render and display detailed, large and complex graphic environments within which users may travel and participate as if a character in an expressionistic or fantastical fictional world or within a realistic or representational approximation of real life.
VU's are also commonly defined with respect to VU regions, virtual areas of land within the VU typically residing on a single server, with each region amenable to provision and management by a one or more participating providers. The size and complexity and variety of resources found in a VU are related to the number of providers participating and hosting regions through server hosting. And the success of a VU may depend upon attracting users and keeping them engaged and participating in the VU environment, thereby adding value to the providers who bear the cost in providing VU region content and services (and correspondingly expect an appropriate level of multiple-user engagement as a return on their investment), as well as for other users who wish to engage many others in a large virtual community. For example, an informational or service-related region managed by a non-profit organization may desire or expect a given level of VU user engagement and participation, and commercial region providers may desire to engage in a given level of commercial transactions (e.g. sales) or achieve a level of marketing exposure among VU users.
VU avatars may exhibit inappropriate and threatening behaviors relative to other users or the VU environment itself. However, prior art protection mechanisms are limited in their efficacy, and in particular with respect to offering proactive protection from hostile actions intentionally directed against a specific avatar by another user's avatar. For example, a user with personal knowledge of another user may use an avatar to deliberately harass or stalk the avatar of the other user. Furthermore, some harassing behavior personally offensive or threatening to a target avatar may in fact be perceived as ambiguous or not objectionable to other users or to VU provider supervisory entities, and thus some harassing activities may actually be permitted by VU provider or supervisory entities, thereby rendering general protection mechanisms provided by some VU providers ineffective or even useless in protecting the targeted avatar. Without effective VU provider protection, VU users whose avatars are subject to objectionable behavior are forced to take actions on their own behalf, actions which may be burdensome and difficult for the user, or may even be proscribed by VU operating agreements or other normative rules (for example, directly responding with harassment, insults, violence in kind, etc.)